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Summary: From the Back Cover, “Shen Tai is the son of a general who let the forces of imperial Kitai in that empire’s last war against their western enemies from Tagur, twenty years before. Forty thousand men on both sides were slain beside a remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has died recently. To honor his father’s memory, Tai has spent two years of official mourning alone at the battle site among the ghosts of the dead, laying to rest their unburied bones.

One spring morning, he learns that others have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess in Tagur is pleased to present him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, given, she writes, in recognition of his courage and hour done to the dead.

You give a man one of the famed Sardians to reward him greatly. You give him four or five to exalt him above his fellows and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.

Tai starts east towards the glittering, dangerous imperial capital and gathers his wits for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to his own forever-altered life.”

Summary: From the back of the book, “Sarantium is the golden city: holy to the faithful, exalted by the poets, jewel of the world, and heart of an empire.

Caius Crispus, known as Crispin, is a master mosaicist, creating beautiful art with colored stones and glass. Still grieving the loss of his family, he lives only for his craft-until and imperial summons draws him east to the fabled city. Bearing with him a queen’s secret mission and seductive promise, and a talisman from an alchemist, Crispin crosses a land of pagan ritual and mortal danger, confronting legends and dark magic. (truncated)” Read the rest of this entry →

Summary: From the back of the book, The Summer Tree is the first novel of Guy Gavriel Kay’s critically acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. Five university students embark on a journey of self-discovery when they enter a realm of wizard and warriors, gods and mythical creatures – and good and evil.